Hot Trend Alert! Native Advertising

If you are unfamiliar with Native advertising, most likely it’s because you’ve read a post without realizing it was an advertisement. That’s the point; the ad will look like and read as a standard article of the platform or website it purchased space to advertise, ergo Native Advertising.

It is part of your content marketing program. If you’ve worked in B2B trade, some trade magazines will offer article submission as part of your media program with their magazine. And, us oldies would put this tactic under our Communications Programs.

You just won’t recognize the advertisement as a sponsored post, or shouldn’t know it is native advertising. The objective is to build trust and engagement with highly targeted customers. The second benefit is the ability to retarget other relevant ads once a person engages in your native ad experience.

Native Advertising works better than traditional display ads. If you’ve ever invested in display ads, you will agree that this tactic never worked – too busy, too messy, too many messages, the list goes on and on.

Remember the days when you would get the notice, “this is a sponsored article.” So, that’s not going to happen anymore. You’ll see this tactic on sites that are large content producers, like BuzzFeed who publish posts sponsored by brands that read like their standard articles.

It is a hot trend, especially for this holiday season. And, if you are interested in selling ad space on your website, look for platforms that will help you manage different campaigns and provide reporting and metrics for your clients.